Liquor on school nights

1:15 A.M. (Monday night, or Tuesday morning) at House of Shields

Bartender: So, who wants a shot of Jim Beam?

Kellam: I'll do one

Klover: Me

Me: Me

What I should have said: Maybe next time

The second one went down with less ease, more guilt. Monday night, for christ sake! I was surprisingly not hungover, and quite with it the next day. Two large coffees with a shot of espresso please.

So I saw Michelle Tea for the first time on Friday night. I assume she is a fixture here, but it was interesting to see her. She reminded me of the girls I would see in the Spotted Dog in Carrboro. Tattoos, long hair, sleeveless dress. She was doing a reading from a new collection of short stories, and she blew me away standing there in City Lights listening to her. She was funny, she was blunt, she talked alot about drugs, and you could tell she had one of those chip-on-your-shoulder, I-wish-SF-was-like-it-used-to-be things going on. But she's 30. They get that way. What I loved was how she was able to make it all so entertaining and funny, like I could feel what it was like to be fucked up off heroin and in love with some boyish-looking dyke. Well, not exactly, but it was a great reading. I can't wait to see her again.